At its May 1994 meeting the JCMT Board approved three innovative new instrumentation projects. These were as a result of the call for proposals published in the last JCMT newsletter.

The response was very encouraging with six excellent proposals. The proposals were first refereed for scientific merit by a referee from each of the partner countries plus a specialist referee, and then were placed in priority order by the JCMT Advisory Panel.

The three proposals which were funded are:

• Proposal to upgrade Receiver C2 to E-band (800 to 900 GHz). B.N. Ellison, L.T. Little & W.R.F. Dent :-- When RxW (which will operate at both C- & D-bands) is delivered in 1995, RxC2 will be returned to RAL and will be refurbished as an E-band receiver.

• A Proposal to Investigate the Design of SIS Receivers for Submillimetre-Wave Extragalactic Astronomy. S. Withington, R.E. Hills & R.G. McMahon :-- This proposal is to investigate a number of technical developments aimed at improving the telescope for extragalactic spectral line work. As part of the study a prototype broad band SIS mixer will be developed and tested.

• A Common User Polarimeter for SCUBA. P.A.R Ade, A.G. Murray, M.J. Griffin, W.K. Gear, J.P. Vallée, P. Bastien, W.S. Holland & M. Tamura :-- This is the first step towards the development of a common user polarimeter for SCUBA. The work will involve assessing the viability of using the existing UKT14 polarimeter with SCUBA and the development of achromatic wave plates and associated hardware for a common user polarimeter.

JCMT Instrumentation Programme